Throwback Thursday: Giant Step @ Mr. C’s, Los Angeles – Sep 14, 1991

August 29, 2013

For this week’s Throwback Thursday, Giant Step President/CEO Maurice Bernstein talks about bringing our legendary Giant Step club to Los Angeles! Were you on the west coast for one of these? Let us know what you remember!

This was the debut of Giant Step Los Angeles, which we held as a bi-monthly for a few months. We teamed up with Brass – the equivalent of Giant Step in Los Angeles or our LA kindred spirits, you could say. Brass was run by Orlando Aguillen, Daz, Blackurn, and Marques Wyatt.

When we came out, we brought with us Jazzy Nice, our emcee Jamal Ski, and Richard Worth on flute – all were part of the Giant Step crew. Camella Ehlke of Triple 5 Soul acted as our fashion muse and styled everyone at the time.

It was great, and the first time I really got to see the scene in Los Angeles. We saw how positively people were responding to the music out there and realized the opportunity to grow this on a national level.

The Los Angeles crowd was a little more laid back than NYC. Another thing I remember is that everything closed so early – the party ended at 2AM. For our club in NYC, 1:30AM is when everyone would arrive – we’d open the doors at 11PM, but it wasn’t really until 1:30AM that the party would start. 1:30 to 3:30, 4AM – that was the real time to be at our party in NYC. But for this LA event, everything was pretty much winding down at 1:30AM. So, getting into the difference of the rhythm was interesting.

The overall vibe was great – great dancers, really wonderful people. I was very impressed.